102nd Annual Meeting of the AAVSO

AAVSO 102nd Annual Meeting will be held October 10-12, 2013 at the Hilton Hotel in Woburn, MA. This meeting will feature a special session on "The Role of Amateur Astronomers in the Age of Large-Scale Surveys" as well as the presentation of the Astronomical League's Peltier Award to one of our own long-time member/observers. The Peltier Award presentation will be followed by a special paper session populated by authors who are past award recipients. We hope that you will be able to join us in metro-Boston for this very special meeting. Boston is a city filled with many interesting museums/attractions and Autumn is a beautiful time to visit New England. This year's meeting is a bit earlier than usual, so New England will be right in the middle of its gorgeous fall foliage season. You may even want to stay a few extra days to enjoy the sights!

- As a part of our discussion on "The Role of Amateur Astronomers in the Age of Large-Scale Surveys" George Ricker, a senior research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI), will be giving an invited talk on Saturday afternoon. Dr. Ricker is the principal investigator for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) project[3]. Using an array of wide-field cameras, this project will perform an all-sky survey to discover transiting exoplanets.

First Time Attendee Dinner: We will be holding an informal gathering Thursday evening for all first time meeting attendees. Members of the AAVSO staff will be present to provide a warm welcome and answer any questions about AAVSO meetings or the organization in general. Additional information will be sent to all registrants who indicate that they are first time attendees during the registration process.

Special Topic & General Paper Sessions: We will hold a special topic paper session on Friday covering "The Role of Amateur Astronomers in the Age of Large-Scale Surveys." General paper sessions on other variable star related topics will also be held on Friday. Depending on time available, some general session papers will be scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Poster papers will be presented on Saturday. All authors are invited to contribute papers to the special topic session, general session, and poster sessions.

Featured Talk: Long time member and current council member, Ed Guinan will be presenting a talk during the Friday special session on surveys on his work with the BRITE Constellation, a network of nano-satellites focused on observing bright stars.

Stay tuned… Additional featured talks will be announced online as they are confirmed! (Check the "updates" section.)

Membership Meeting: All attendees are invited to this gathering, which will be held Saturday morning. The purpose of this meeting is to inform attendees of the activities of the Association. The Director’s Report will be included and we will announce the AAVSO Council election results. All portions of the membership meeting will be broadcast online via GoToWebinar. (Details will be announced on the website.) We will leave plenty of time for Q&A and will be taking questions from both in-person and online attendees.

Special Peltier Award Session: Following the AAVSO membership meeting, representatives from the Astronomical League (AL)[5] will be presenting the AL's Leslie C. Peltier Award[6] to a long-time AAVSO member/observer. The Saturday afternoon paper session will be comprised of talks by authors who are past recipients of the Peltier Award.

Closing Award Banquet: The Closing Banquet (buffet) will be held at the Woburn Hilton on Saturday evening. The banquet will be preceded by a cash bar and include several special award presentations. There will not be an after dinner talk but we are planning some fun activities

Sleeping rooms have been reserved at the Woburn Hilton for AAVSO meeting attendees at a special group rate of $125 plus tax. (Hotel address is: 2 Forbes Road, Woburn, MA 01801.) Please make your reservations by calling the hotel at 781-932-0999 before September 18th, 2013. Please be sure to mention that you will be participating in the AAVSO meeting when making room reservations. Our group code is: AAV109.If you have any difficulties securing the group rate, please ask for Debra Senf (Sales Director).

Roommate matching assistance will be available for those who would like to lower costs by sharing a room - just complete the appropriate section of the registration form.

TRANSPORTATION

The hotel has free shuttle service within a 5-mile radius of the property. A shopping mall, many restaurants, and bus service to/from the airport are all located well within 5 miles. A subway stop[7], which provides service into downtown Boston for sightseeing, is also located within the 5-mile radius.

For those driving or renting cars - there is plenty of free onsite parking!

From the airport:

Taxi: Travel from airport to the Woburn Hilton will be about $60.

RECOMMENDED! Logan Express Bus:[8] Runs every hour to half hour depending on the day of week. Direct to airport, no other stops. No reservations required. Fare is $12 one-way & $22 round trip. This bus picks up at all airport terminals and drops off less than 10-minutes from the Hilton at the Anderson Regional Transportation Center[9]. You can take the free hotel shuttle (call the hotel front desk upon arrival: 781-932-0999) or a taxi from there.

REGISTRATION

Please complete the MEETING REGISTRATION FORM [10]by September 23, 2013. You can complete this form[11]online[10](you must be logged into the AAVSO website) or you can call the AAVSO (617-354-0484) to request that a paper copy of the registration forms be mailed to you. After September 23rd registration will be more expensive and some events may be sold out. Note that the registration fee includes a hot breakfast buffet & coffee breaks on Friday, & Saturday.

This year member registration rates are lower than non-member rates. The good news for non-members: Registration now includes half price AAVSO membership through the end of 2013!

Spouse/Guest Networking: We encourage attendees to bring spouses, family members & other guests to the meeting, but we know that some guests may not wish to attend all of the sessions. We will set up a mailing list so that spouses/guests can share sightseeing ideas and make plans to "hit the town" together. Sign-up for this mailing list is available via the meeting registration form.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Abstracts will be accepted on a space-available basis until September 23, 2013. You can complete this form online via the 102nd Annual Meeting page[10] (strongly preferred) or you can call the AAVSO (617-354-0484) to request that a paper copy of the abstract form be mailed to you. NOTE: The abstract form will not appear until you have registered for the meeting.

Meeting attendees are permitted to submit up to 2 abstract forms. (This can be 2 posters, 2 oral presentations or one of each.) Abstracts are limited to 500 words.